Wednesday May 16th, 2012

College Savings Plan

Saving for your children's education requires a long-term plan. And, like saving for retirement, the earlier you start your plan the better. Use this calculator to help develop or fine-tune your education savings plan. Click the "View Report" button for a detailed look at the results.

MSG_RESULTS_STATEMENT

During the next YEARS_BEFORE_DONE years you will need to save about TOTAL_COST to cover educational expenses. MSG_RESULTS_STATEMENT In order to be right on target you should CHANGE_REQUIRED.

**GRAPH**

Your Current Savings Plan
Education cost inflation	COLLEGE_COST_INFLATION
Current savings	CURRENT_SAVINGS
Monthly contributions	MONTHLY_ADDITIONS_TO_SAVINGS
Rate of return	RATE_OF_RETURN
Total expenses	TOTAL_COST
Changes required in plan?	You should CHANGE_REQUIRED.

Educational Expenses

The following educational costs assume that your children will attend a four-year program. If they are planning on attending school for a longer period of time, the cost will increase. CHILD_ONE_SUMMARY CHILD_TWO_SUMMARY CHILD_THREE_SUMMARY CHILD_FOUR_SUMMARY

Savings and expenses by year

**REPEATING GROUP**

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Definitions

Age of children

The current age of your children. This calculator is based on your children beginning their college education at age 18. The difference between their current age and 18 is the number of years you have to save.

Annual tuition

The current estimated cost of one year of tuition and books. This amount should be per child and be specific to the school they may be interested in attending. The average published costs of college, for the 2008-09 school year, including tuition, room and board, books, supplies, transportation and other personal expenses, as reported by the College Board:

Type	Tuition and fees	Room & Board	Total	Change from 2007-08
U.S. Undergraduate College Costs for 2008-09 School Year Source: College Board's 2008 Trends in College Pricing, www.collegeboard.com
Public 4-Year (in-state tuition)	$6,585	$7,748	$14,333	5.7%
Public 4-Year (out-of-state tuition)	$17,452	$7,748	$25,200	5.2%
Private 4-Year	$25,143	$8,989	$34,132	5.6%

For the purposes of this calculator all expenses are assumed to be due at the end of the year.

Room and board: The current estimated cost of one-year room and board. Like tuition and books, this amount should be per child and specific to the school they may be interested in attending. For the purposes of this calculator, all expenses are assumed to be due at the end of the year.
Education cost inflation: This is the percentage that you expect educational costs to increase per year. Data provided by The College Board's "Trends in College Pricing 2008" put tuition, room and board increases at approximately 6.4% per year, for the last ten years.
Current amount: The total amount you currently have saved for your child's (or children's) education.
Monthly contributions: The dollar amount you plan to save per month toward your child's (or children's) education. All amounts are assumed to be added to your account at the beginning of the month.
Rate of return: This is the annually compounded rate of return you expect from your investments. This will also be the rate used if you end up with a negative balance, and need to borrow money to meet your goal. The actual rate of return is largely dependent on the type of investments you select. From January 1970 to December 2008, the average annual compounded rate of return for the S&P 500, including reinvestment of dividends, was approximately 9.7% (source: www.standardandpoors.com). During this period, the highest 12-month return was 61%, from June 1982 through June 1983. The lowest 12-month return was -39%, which happened twice, once from September 1973 to September 1974 and again from November 2007 to November 2008. Savings accounts at a bank may pay as little as 1% or less but carry significantly lower risk of loss of principal balances.
It is important to remember that future rates of return can't be predicted with certainty and that investments that pay higher rates of return are generally subject to higher risk and volatility. The actual rate of return on investments can vary widely over time, especially for long-term investments. This includes the potential loss of principal on your investment. It is not possible to invest directly in an index and the compounded rate of return noted above does not reflect sales charges and other fees that funds and/or investment companies may charge.